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Comparing Because I Could Not Stop For Death And Death Be Not Proud

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Death is presented as intimidating and scary in most cultures. Death and what happens after is the topic of many poems. Many of the poems are about death not being intimidating or alarming. One such poem being Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson. Another poem with a similar message Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne. Though Because I Could Not Stop for Death and Death, Be Not Proud both attempt to show that death is not intimidating, they use different depictions of death, the attitude of the narrator, and poem format.

Both poets depict death as something people should not fear. Donne confidently ridicules death for being proud of nothing and claims that in the end death will die while everyone else is in the afterlife. He was a devout Christian which helps explain how he can seem so sure of his claim that death is pointless. Dickinson does not take an aggressive stance against death like Donne. Instead, she turns death into a civil gentleman that will give you a peaceful ride to your grave. In the end Donne and Dickinson both show death in a different light than expected by most people. …show more content…
However, when Dickinson thinks about death she instead believes it is welcome after a long full life. She shows this by having the narrator in her poem show gratitude and respect towards death. Donne takes a different approach choosing to have the narrator take pity on death for being useless. His narrator’s attitude makes sense given the belittling nature of his poem. Even though Donne and Dickinson chose opposite attitudes for their narrator they both managed to further their goal of humanizing

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